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Boy Scout Treehouse Save
Location: Jackson, Mississippi Date: August 28, 1993 Story Instruction in first aid emergency medicine, including treatment for shock, is often part of Boy Scout training programs. On August 28, 1993, 13-year-old Patrick Mizell, who was building a treehouse with some of his scouting friends, found out how important this can be. Way up in a towering oak tree about 1 mile into the woods behind his house in Jackson, Mississippi, Patrick was working on the treehouse with his best friends, Ben Boteler and Pat Holloman, in the afternoon. They had constructed a ladder of planks nailed into the trunk of the tree, leading up to a high, broad branch, where they planned to construct the highest treehouse in the neighborhood. Hearing the sounds of voices and hammering, two other neighborhood boys, Maury Breazeable and Jonathan Daniel, joined them, and were appropriately awed by the scope and ambition of the project, which included bringing in building materials on a four-wheel off-road bike. "Those woods are kind of like my summer home," Maury said. "I'm back there a lot during the summer with my friends. We saw Patrick up in the tree, and he was about three or four stories high. I was amazed because I've never built a fort that high. We were talking about how awesome it was, and how cool it was going to be when it was finished." The next thing they knew, someone up in the tree screamed, "Oh my God, Patrick!" as Patrick's body came hurtling down through the branches toward them. A small branch he had been standing on had unexpectly given way. "When Patrick hit the ground, it was one of the most terrible sounds I ever heard in my whole entire life," said Ben. "He was lying on his side. He wasn't moving. And everybody was just running around screaming, 'What do we do? Oh my gosh, he's dead!'" said Maury. "Ben and Patrick and I are all in the same Boy Scout troop, and when we earned the first aid merit badge, they said that the worst thing you can do in an emergency is panic, because that's the way a lot of people die." Maury and Ben took charge of the situation. "He's not breathing!" Ben shouted. "I knew I was taking a chance because he might be paralyzed, but I had to turn him on his side to lift his chin up to open his airway," said Ben, who also checked to make certain that Patrick had a pulse. "Lifting his chin didn't work, so I did a finger sweep. His tongue was in the back of his throat, and I pulled it out." "He's breathing, he's breathing," another of the boys called excitedly. "His face was really pale," Maury said, "and in the Scouts there's a rhyme that says 'If the face is pale, lift the tail. If the face is red, lift the head.'" Maury told Ben to lift Patrick's legs so he wouldn't go into shock. The boys also took off their T-shirts and wrapped them around Patrick to help maintain his body temperature. "I was really scared for him," Maury said. "I wasn't sure if he was going to live or not." Maury and Jonathan took the four-wheeler and went to the nearest house to get help. About 15 minutes after Patrick's fall, they got to a phone to call for EMS personnel. A mobile medical ambulance was immediately dispatched to the scene. Back in the woods, Ben continued to hold Patrick's legs, encouraging and comforting him. "Hang in there, Patrick," he said. "You're going to be okay." "Adrenaline was pumping through every vein in my body," Ben said, "and I really couldn't believe that this was happening. He was breathing very raggedly, and I thought he was going to die. Me and Patrick are great friends, and I just couldn't imagine him not being here anymore." Paramedic Derrick Layton and the other rescue workers arrived at the nearest house within 25 minutes of the accident. "There was a lady waiting for us," Layton said. "She said, 'Get out the four-wheeler, and they'll take you to where the patient is.' The woods were about 100 yards back from the house, so I figured that we'd be right behind the house. But when we got there, we were probably a good mile away from where the ambulance was. I didn't have my radio with me because I didn't think I'd be that far out of contact with my crew. Just from looking at him, I knew that he was critical." Layton sent one of the boys back to his crew to get the equipment he needed. Layton shouted, "Patrick, can you hear me?" and got no response. "I was surprised to see his blood pressure and his pulses as stabilized as they were," Layton said. "Everything that could have been done prior to our arrival was done. His eyes were gazed upward and to the right, which would inticate some kind of head injury. It crossed the back of my mind that he might die while we were still out in the woods." Patrick's parents, Lori and Jim Mizell, were told of his accident and came racing through the woods to where he lay. "It seemed like I was running real fast," Lori said, "but I couldn't get there. It was like slow motion." "I could tell by the looks on the faces of the paramedics and the firemen that it was a very serious situation," said Jim. "Are you okay?" Lori called to Patrick, distractedly. "Ma'am, he'll be fine," Layton told her, reassuringly. "He just looked at me like he was sleeping," said Lori. "I kept hoping against hop that he'd soon be okay. It's just that when you see your child sitting there, not moving, it's just kind of frightening." Since I lost my father about 4 years ago, Patrick's been my biggest buddy," Jim said. "The thing that crossed my mind was that I was going to lose my best friend." "It's real scary to think that you're going to outlive your child," Lori said. "I just would rather die than him die. He's such a joy-such a sweet, good kid." Patrick, in critical condition, was taken to the trauma center at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where he was treated by a team of doctors. "When I first saw Patrick, he was comatose," said Philip Azordegan, the neurosurgeon in charge of the case. "He had sustained a punctured lung, but he hadn't broken either his neck or his back. The bad news was that he had sustained a very severe head injury. We were concerned that he either would remain in a coma permanently or would not survive at all." Lori and Jim sat by Patrick's bedside, comforting him and trying to orient him to his surrounding. "Are you okay, sugar?" Lori asked. "You okay, buddy? This is your daddy," said Jim. "You've got to go ahead and get well as soon as you can." "We were just sitting there, trying to comfort him, telling him where he was, telling him what happened, so if he could hear us, he wouldn't be scared to death," said Lori. "The main thing I was worried about was that his state of mind was going to get bad and he was just going to give up," said Jim. "We got through that first night," Lori said, "and I kept telling him, 'This isn't good enough, Patrick. You've got to show me your eyes.' I just wanted him to wake up." Finally, Patrick raised his eyelids and looked at his thankful parents. "The first time I saw his eyes, it was like when you're looking at them when they're little babies, and they look at you and smile. He's just a bunch of prayers that were answered. He's just the answer to a prayer." Patrick spent 10 days in the hospital, and proceeded to make an amazing recovery. "I think Patrick was an incredibly lucky young man," said Azordegan. "I don't think anyone else who had fallen that distance would have done nearly as well or even survived that fall." Two months after he was released, he was back in school, begging to be allowed to go back to all his normal activities, including lifting weights. "I'm learning to be real careful in trying the things that I do," Patrick said. "I'm learning that I'm not invincible." "He's been very adventurous," Lori said. "Jim and I have said that if he makes it through his teens, it will be a miracle. We tease him now. We tell him that some angels caught him on the way down. It's probably what happened." "The training that they had gotten in the Boy Scouts was the exact thing that he needed at that time," said Layton. "If it hadn't been for them opening his airway, he would have been dead before we got there. There's just no question that they're the ones that saved his life." "This accident has pulled us together," Maury said, "because we realize how fortunate we are that Patrick is here and that we all have such a good friendship. It really scared me to think that he was almost taken from us. I hope that nothing like that ever happens again. It was really hard." "I don't think I can repay all the people that helped me," Patrick said. "I want them to know that I'm very grateful for what they did. "Maybe I'll get to see him him grow up and see his kids," said Lori. "And when he has his own, he'll probably be able to feel the fullness of being a parent and the love that comes from it. He's my special son, and he always has been." Category:1993 Category:Mississippi Category:Falls